White House urging Democrats to reject progressive push to block arms transfers to Israel
With legislation almost certain to fail given bipartisan backing for Israel, administration’s decision to weigh in shows desire for party to maintain pro-Israel stance after election
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is lobbying Democratic senators to vote against legislation being advanced by several of the party’s most progressive members that would block more than $20 billion in weapon shipments to Israel, two US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The series of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval co-sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz are slated to come to a vote on Wednesday and aim to block six weapon transfers to Israel, which include guided missiles, tank rounds, mortars, tactical vehicles and F-15 fighter jets.
While the votes are all but certain to fail, given the strong support for Israel in both parties — particularly the GOP — they are likely to mark a watershed moment in a more divided Democratic Party that is still working to understand the lessons of this month’s election, which saw Republicans win the White House and Senate and keep their majority in the House.
The Biden administration’s decision to engage on the matter demonstrates its desire for the Democratic Party to maintain a pro-Israel posture post-election.
While moderates have argued that the party did too much to cater to its progressive wing, including by staking out adversarial positions toward Israel, lawmakers such as “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have charged that the party catered to special interest groups such as the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby and therefore lost support — a claim denounced by several mainstream Jewish organizations.
Accordingly, the progressive flank is looking for a strong showing during Wednesday’s voting in the Senate to demonstrate that the party should take a harder line on Israel than under Biden.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been privately working to push back against the Senate legislation, with officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon reaching out to various lawmakers on the fence about how they might vote, one US official told The Times of Israel.
These Democrats have expressed concerns regarding the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza and the notion that US-supplied weapons are being used to kill women and children, the US official said. Some have also argued that Israel hasn’t done enough to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza and didn’t meet many of the steps laid out by the Biden administration in a letter to Jerusalem last month that warned of a partial arms embargo if the Gaza humanitarian crisis isn’t alleviated within 30 days.
As the deadline expired last week, the US said that Israel had made enough progress on many of the steps laid out in the letter to remain in compliance with US law, thereby allowing weapons shipments to continue. The decision infuriated progressives but was also made days after the election of Donald Trump, who would almost surely have reversed any decision withholding arms to Israel upon returning to office.
In making the case against the Senate resolutions, Biden aides have argued that the weapons in question are essential for Israel’s defense and won’t be delivered for another year or two, “so the likelihood of them being used in this iteration of the Gaza context is very low,” explained one US official.
“At a time when Hezbollah is about to agree to a ceasefire, now is not the time to send a message to Israel’s adversaries that there is a break in the relationship between the United States and Israel,” the US official continued. “It actually only encourages Israel’s adversaries to be more obstinate and sends a terrible message to Iran, as Iran considers retaliation against Israel.”
The official went on to reject arguments from some Democratic senators who have expressed willingness to back the legislation while arguing that they still support sending defensive weapons to Israel.
“That is a false concept,” said the US official. “You can’t retrieve hostages or get to a rocket launcher with an Iron Dome missile.”
As for Democratic frustrations over Israel’s track record on ensuring humanitarian aid reaches civilians, the US official said the matter was separate than the issues raised in the resolutions. “If we want Israel to be able to make choices on humanitarian assistance, they need to know that the United States has their back.”
The US official also argued that there are more effective ways to send Israel messages regarding civilian casualties than through these resolutions.
For his part, Sanders told reporters Tuesday that “what is happening in Gaza today is unspeakable,” highlighting the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, as well as large-scale destruction of buildings and infrastructure.
“What makes it even more painful is that much of what is happening there has been done with US weapons and with American taxpayer support,” he added.
“It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use US taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of US and international law and our moral values,” said the progressive Vermont senator, who asserted that the Israeli premier is undermining the Biden administration’s foreign policy agenda across the board.
Sanders also noted that other Western allies have taken similar steps to curb weapons shipments to Israel such as the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
